Data capture devices have become ubiquitous in modern society with the advancement of electronic technologies relating to digital image and video capture, data processing, data storage, location and movement detection, data communications, as well as concurrent developments in system integration and battery technologies. Practically every smartphone has an assortment of data capture devices, such as one or more video cameras, a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, an accelerometer, and a magnetometer, along with processing facilities and software applications that make using these functions simple and intuitive for lay person users.
Variations or subsets of these data capture technologies are found in a variety of other consumer, commercial, and industrial products having different form-factors and usage profiles. For instance, smartphone technology has been incorporated into wearable products such as glasses. Accessory devices, such as smartwatches, which in some cases may be usable as stand-alone data capture devices in their own right, are rapidly growing in popularity. Security cameras, which may be Internet-accessible by their operators, as well as closed-system security arrangements that store data in digital format, are becoming increasingly common in homes and businesses. Data capture devices may store the captured data locally, such as the case with ruggedized “action” cameras that are optimized for sports and underwater use, or in a remote location, such as on a local-area network file server, or remote cloud service.
With today's wide availability of data capture devices it is becoming increasingly common for significant events to be captured by a device that happens to be in the vicinity of the event. Significant events may include crimes, accidents, disputes, acts of terrorism, natural or man-made disasters, as well as unusual phenomena, incredible human achievements, and the like, for which a record of proof, or investigation of evidence, may be warranted. Unfortunately, records of significant events are subject to fabrication, alteration, or other tampering, bringing into question the veracity of any given record of a captured event. Different data may be substituted, and falsely attributed to a data capture device, for instance, or the time and location of a set of captured data may be manipulated by an actor seeking to mislead an investigation. More sophisticated tampering may change the content of a set of captured data to add or remove certain subjects or actions of interest. As a result, data that is presented as having been recorded by a conventional data capture device is not always reliable as such.
In the legal context, for example, saved data is subject to authentication by establishing a clear chain of custody of the stored data from the time of capture, to the storage devices, to the presentation of that data in a legal proceeding. Along this chain of custody, there are numerous links that may be susceptible to tampering or interference, whether by hacking attack, manipulation by an insider, access by third party storage or data communication service providers, etc. In addition, the person having operated the data capture device may be unavailable, e.g., deceased, hostile or uncooperative, undesirable as a witness for public policy reasons (e.g., a minor or victim of sexual violence) or an interested party in the legal proceeding, making them subject to impeachment.
In view of the above, a practical technological solution is needed to address the problem of captured data authenticity.